John Kennedy: The financial risk of charity hospital 'privatization'

12:05 AM,
Oct. 29, 2013

Written by

John N. Kennedy

The reason advanced by the Jindal administration for privatizing Louisiana's charity hospitals is that a private hospital - Lafayette General or Ochsner, for example - can manage a hospital more efficiently, and therefore cheaper, than the state.

That's why I was taken aback when the chairman of the private entity taking over the Shreveport state hospital testified before the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget that the private contractor's costs to run the Shreveport facility will be the same as the state's. Where, then, will the Jindal administration's promised annual savings ...